Proudtobeabairn

I think its perfectly acceptable for folk to be excited about getting back to the football and despite all the knicker wetting no-one actually knows yet whether we're going to stroll it or fail again. Still up to 6 new signings to be added. Plenty of time for negativity if we start poorly. If we were going into the new season with the same management and players as last season I'd agree that the outcome would most likely be disaster but that's not the case. At this stage we can surely at least have hope. I think if I allowed myself to get so upset that I refused to go to games or look forward to them at all atm I'd be questioning whether football is really for me.

The theory with loans I guess is that you can bring in players you otherwise wouldn't be able to attract to sign permanently. Best examples being signings like Kasper Schmeichel or Stokes. We're miles below bringing in Man City or Arsenal players atm but equivalent should be Rangers/Celtic/Aberdeen youngsters likely to be a cut above Craig McGuffie.

You've got to hope Sheerin and Grainger will raise the performance levels compared to what M&M were getting out of the likes of Keena, Dowds, Telfer and Morrison. I agree with the others who say let's judge the starting XI once everyone is signed and in. Would also love to sign a Declan McManus (for example) but don;t get the rush to write off anyone who is coming from a lower standard of football. Hopefully if the likes of Wilson and Robertson are dugsh*t then Sheerin will show them the door. I seem to recall JJ signing players from the likes of Berwick, Stenny, Musselbrugh and Cowdenbeath who all did ok.

We definitely need to make the last 4-5 signings count. They have to be better than whats there already. From the Q&A I came away a bit more confident about Rawlins and less confident about Holt. The latter being the biggest Red Flag of the night. Forr me 2 of the most alarming things were Holt saying he'd make the same January signings again and that all 3 had gone through their new player profiling before being signed. That's worrying. He also mentioned he's always asking for more money/more signings. Get them right 1st time and you won't need to be doing that. If the board don't want attention on them, they need the last few signings to be good..

While I'm right behind Sheerin, that line up looks murder. Defence should be better but the rest of the team needs massively improved. Another struggle for Telfer this season to convince the manager he's worth a game? I want to be positive but can't help feeling after Holts comments about the January signings that Corrzo's stats engine is no more advanced than looking at (1) are they under 30 and (2) have they played in the championship... praying we sign a very solid Keeper/Centre Mid/Striker spine ASAP.

Agree it should be but dealing with people who go back on their promises and try to remove individuals from discussions etc. Plus all the detail on sign location and income from advertising, H&S excuses etc its more complex than it seems and very easy for it to get personal (as seems to have happened).

Also strikes me that both CI and NB should be working with experienced lawyers when dealing with the board. Much of whats been said over the last couple of months comes down to clash or personality/he said/she said nonsense. Would also put an end to all the personal attack and 'he only wanted to talk by phone' stuff that makes discussions like these end up impossible. These are big investments/commitments - take the emotion out of it and let professionals handle all the negotiations.

The board (at the time) also knew the name of Mark Campbell but didn't exactly dissuade them... The point is the fans need to know to get behind the bid. I get that you and others are pals with this group but 99% of fans aren't so we need to know more about them. Think about it as though you don't know them. Would you blindly get behind a group you knew nothing about (not even their names) just because some folk on a forum told you it was 'for the best'. MA, SR and even Gary Deans all claim to be longstanding Falkirk fans so being a fan isn't on its own enough for people to be convinced they'd be a great addition to the board. For this to succeed the wider fan base need to be behind the bid. We need to know who the Navy Blue are (names and backgrounds preferably but names at the very least). £550k is a lot of money of course but could also be very quickly spunked up the wall by either this board or with NB onboard. Also an independent chairman isn't independent if installed by the NB - its not the fans who'd need to be comfortable with any independent chairman, its the whole board. I sound like I'm against the NB bid, I'm really not, Its just incredibly frustrating that they are prepared to walk away from the fight without even trying to get 99% of the fans on board with what they're trying to do. Before they'll even reveal who they are? Its bizarre. There could even be others out there willing to pitch in with funds - we'll never know..

- So who are the 11 and who is the proposed board member with significant football experience? Why the secrecy around who the "Navy Blue Group" are? - How do the Falkirk Supports Society fit in? Why are the two fans groups not working together to secure 1/3rd stake? There are a lot of positives about the proposed bid and a lot of reasons that you can see the board would not want to accept. For the majority of fans, a fundamental question has to be who these 11 are? Give us names/background and reason to trust this is a group who know what they're doing. Otherwise this is all just turning into playground he said/she said bollocks.

If NB investment is dead in the water (which it does seem to be) the question is now what everyone is doing re season tickets. Give the current board the time it needs to make a positive impact and back the team in the meantime or still trying to starve the board out? If the latter what is the endgame - how much damage to the finances could be considered worth it? Personally, I've renewed mine. I'm looking forward to getting back to the stadium. I'm not 100% happy with everything off the pitch but I'm happy enough to give the Rawlins (esp) time to deliver. I don't see how not buying a ST will result in anything positive at this time.

Having watched it, I still think there's mileage in both the CI initiative and the NB investment if both groups want it. As I've suggested before, I think its clear the board aren't going to accept NB's (revised) conditions so I'd be looking at how NB could make the investment dependent on achievement of milestones and build up to a 2/2/2 board split over time that way. GD could remain chairman for now but be challenged at a future EGM/AGM. I don't know all the detail but sometimes these things can succeed/fail based on how each side deals with personality clashes. Deep breaths, open minds and a willingness to keep dialogue going despite major setbacks is vital in business to get what you what. The board last night indicated the door is still open, hopefully there is someone on the NB & CI sides who can see past petty jibes and get back round the table for the greater good. Oh and Holt is an arse. His defence of last seasons squad was laughable and I wish he'd been pressed more on his ridiculous "well we won the first game back" nonsense. Defending the January loan signings v the likes of Mochrie, Ballantyne, Tiffoney etc was worrying. Apparently they all went through Corrzo's profiling so you have to question if the profiling is working.

Quite like the new kit but sponsor on home should have been white. I'm more amazed that the Maniqui is back ?!

Always amazes me at this time of year that folk can identify guys like Ben Weekes. Not sure I would recognise most of the Hibs first team!

For me the first stage of the reboot was the Rawlins investing and then giving them a period of time to really stamp their authority on things. They've not had that yet. I get that there's appeal in getting Deans out but seems clear it'll now be the Rawlins calling the shots? It seems a bit bizarre that having done all we can to get the Rawlins in we should want to dilute their influence through the fans bid before they've had a chance to really get started. I don't fully understand the fans groups intention or motives here either despite all that's been said. What have they seen that suggests the Rawins can't be trusted or that we immediately need to reboot again? On paper the Rawlins (or Phil at least) know what they're doing. We don't know who the fans group actually are but unless someone can tell us otherwise its unlikely they have the same experience in football. Bringing in the Rawlins then handing over their influence to the fans group seems a bit like bringing in a star striker and then making him play behind someone who has never played up front before. Hopefully the investment isn't completely off the pitch and a compromise can be found - as suggested before maybe something that drip feeds the fan investment and increases fan influence depending on the Rawlins hitting some milestones (e.g promotion, future investment etc). That sort of solution seems most pragmatic under the circumstances and most beneficial to the club?

We're going to have Dowds and Keena on the books so important Sheerin gets a look at them to assess their strengths weaknesses before deciding what type of player we need alongside them.

Re new signings - could be that Sheerin wants to have a proper look at those on the books first in pre season training before making a final decision on any new signings?

Haven't seen any chat on here about the Falkirk Supports Society. Nobody have mates involved in this? What are folks views (dare I ask): Falkirk Supporters Society 19h · A few months ago, we asked Falkirk fans what they thought about creating a new supporters' organisation. That organisation would invest small subscriptions from across our support, increase the collective shareholding and therefore fans’ influence in our club, so we could promote fans’ views and protect our club from bad decisions and external threats. Nearly 500 of you responded to the survey and the vast majority supported the proposals. We planned to launch the organisation in April on the back of what we had hoped would end with promotion to the Championship. However it wasn’t credible to go out to Falkirk fans and ask for money after such a disappointing end to the season. It’s time to move things along now. Why? Well, the same rules apply. It’s arguably more urgent to have a fans’ voice in the boardroom given recent events on and off the pitch. We also have an opening. As you've seen from the club's season ticket marketing, the club has made an offer of a "significant" share donation and a director position for an elected fans’ representative. We’ve heard the Rawlins’ vision to work alongside fans and the chairman’s “three-legged stool” pitch. That has changed things. We will discuss the details and come to a view about whether or not we have a satisfactory offer to take to fans, with a view to, we hope, launching the new fans' organisation at the beginning of the new season. More to come shortly. But to be clear - this organisation will be ran by Falkirk fans for Falkirk fans. The organisation and eventual fans’ director will answer to Falkirk fans. And our ambitions will only be limited by the amount of buy-in we get from Falkirk fans.

Can't wait for the season to start to get by all this p*sh Its pretty clear there are opposing views on the proposed investment and whether it should have gone through or not and that's fine however it doesn't do anyone any favours to be completely blinkered by their support or defence of the board. I do believe we all want the same thing (a successful Falkirk) but its not true that everything the board does is a complete shambles just as much as its not true that everything they do is brilliant. I honestly believe the majority on here find fault with anything that comes out of the club to the extent that often these are the very things they were bumping their gums about before they happened (sack M&M! clear out the team! We don't have any players! MR&SA GTF! Rawlins in! Rawlins out! ST not on sale! STs too expensive! no Q&A! Q&A shit! Announce refunds! Refunds disgrace! Falkirk TV shit! Pixellot shitter! No social media coverage! Why are we at Napier! let fans invest! Don't buy season tickets! Sign McCann! We need bigger names! KK doesn't have shares/toxic part of the board! KK was brilliant how could he have gone!) I get folk are pissed off (I am too) but it would be impossible atm for anything to come out of the club that a lot on here wouldn't have issue with.

C'mon - they've been in the door 5mins and haven't even made it to Scotland yet. During that time we've appointed a sporting director, development coach, restarted the development team, changed the management team, released 90% of the first team and are in the process of rebuilding a team that will (hopefully) win the league. They've also communicated poorly, hacked off some fans by rejecting their investment and rubbed some of the status quo at the club up the wrong way. Its too early to judge them but they must deliver now. If we win the league with points to spare this season we'll hopefully see more and more of their influence (in a positive way) and investment.

Let's give Lewis a bit of credit, if theres a high volume of questions asking more or less the same thing then he'll be forced to ask it. He has a little more leeway here than in the pre/post match interviews as the questions are not his. Hopefully he'll use that leeway and ask the difficult ones. I've emailed some of mine in anyway and suggest everyone with concerns does the same. Good to get a bit more detail over the last few pages on the fans bid. I still think the fundamental issue is that the Rawlins haven't had time to properly influence the running of the club and do things their way. They clearly want (and I think deserve) the chance to do that before they will agree to boardroom changes etc. The proposed changes to the boardroom would have held them back (is the way they'll see it) in terms of decision making. A change of chairman along with the new fans reps would have made it extremely difficult to get things done especially if the changes they want to make are unpopular but necessary. Those on here supporting the fans bid seem to gloss over that point when its raised. The Rawlins are not fans, they're here to make money and to do that we need to be successful. I'd like to see the fans group restructure their investment proposal. Stagger it over the next 2-3 years and make it dependent on the Rawlins hitting milestones and increasing fans representation on the board over that period. Trust needs to be regained on both sides and this way we get to see what impact the Rawlins can make but with the medium/longer term balance of power shifting towards the fans.

Martin Ritchie and Sandy Alexander have supported the club for years and look what happened when they were calling the shots. Just because someone is a fan doesn't mean they are the best person to make decisions and run a successful football club. I like the idea of the club being fan owned but I like the idea of Falkirk being successful more.

FFS its not about taking sides - its about giving folk some information and detail. As @JulioBairn says above, our support were so sick of the way the club was being run that we did everything we could to get the Rawlins in the door. Now, we're being told they are out to ruin the club despite on the face of it having more experience of decision making in successful football clubs than anyone else involved at the club. Normal fans being asked to 'take sides' with the Patrons when (1) we don't even know who the 'patrons' are (just some secretive chat about there being a 'football man' involved etc... I mean - that's got to be the very least they could reveal surely?!? (2) Nobody is actually telling us why The Rawlins approach = BAD (3) we've been wanting a clear out for years, we now have one (4) Most of those speaking out against the Rawlins sound like they've had their nose put out of joint and have taken the hump.

Who has vanished for a fortnight? Where are you getting this info? Maybe SA and MR have been hounded (quite rightly imo) over the last few years to the extent that they have stopped trying to intervene in board decisions? Maybe unsettling a few folk and making a few unpopular decisions is what we need after years of boardroom failure? We'll find out soon enough.

Seems like every man and his dog have got the intimate details of exactly what the Rawlins have said or done to the Patrons & CI guys bit no-one is willing to share? What harm would posting some actual details on here do at this stage? As others have said it may give folk like me an others more reason to galvanise against the owners if they really are out to destroy the club. I don't doubt the CI guys have been treated shabbily but their statement said nothing really about the reasons the board have given them or what actually happened. All we've heard from the Patrons bid is that someone (Mrs Rawlins?) took a swipe at their character but no actual details for us to judge. Based on the information we do have I completely understand why the Rawlins wouldn't accept the conditions attached to the Patrons bid. If there's more to it then get the details out there, until then it all just sounds like bumped gums and playground stuff.

We're building a younger team. Some may well improve over the next few years. Let's give them a chance though eh? E.g Mutch - 22 Williamson - 25 Hall - 24 McCann - 21 Nesbitt - 24 McGuffie - 23 Keena - 21 Dowds - 24 Telfer - 25 Morrison - 21